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New York’s new sanctuary state laws are a recipe for chaos

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Last week, New York state Democrats did what they do best: They jammed what will ultimately prove to be unpopular and counterproductive restrictions on immigration enforcement into the state budget. They did it with bail reform. They did it with juvenile justice reform. And they did it with criminal discovery reform. While frustration is an appropriate emotional response to this development, surprise is not.

The changes being pushed through the recently passed budget bill are sweeping. According to reporting by The Post and others, the package includes measures:

Banning law-enforcement agencies within the state from engaging in any formal or informal cooperation with federal immigration authorities;

Banning federal law-enforcement agents from concealing their faces; 

Creating a state law right of action for New Yorkers to sue federal agents they believe violated their rights; and

Prohibiting state jails from holding offenders on behalf of immigration authorities.

If New York was a “sanctuary state” before, it will soon be a sanctuary state on steroids once the budget is signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. All of these measures fall somewhere between deeply misguided and legally suspect. 

First of all, the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause — which subordinates state law to federal law — makes clear that states cannot regulate federal........

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